No Fire Exit, Poor Ventilation: Lapses Exposed at Delhi IAS Coaching Centre Where 3 Students Drowned

New Delhi: The deaths of three UPSC aspirants at a flooded basement at Rau's coaching centre in Delhi on Saturday evening following heavy rainfall, have exposed major lapses in the building. The deceased students comprise two females and one male who have been identified as Shriya, Naveen and Tania.

For the unversed, three civil services aspirants drowned at Rau's IAS coaching centre basement - a popular coaching centre in Central Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar - after it got flooded with rain water. The tragic incident triggered mass outrage, prompting hundreds of students to come out to stage protests and seek justice.

According to sources, there are nine big halls in the institute where nine different batches are run simultaneously.

Republic Media Network spoke exclusively to students present at the protest site. The students claimed that there are major flaws in the building including no fire exit, poor ventilation system in the basement and only one spiral staircase.

Here are the lapses that have come to fore:

• FIR states NOC didn't allow for the library in the basement
• Library illegally running in the basement
• Building made without FSI Guidelines
• No fire exit building
• NOC only given for storage or parking in the basement
• Drains were not de-silted and cleaned which led to flooding

Students are seeking accountability from MCD over criminal negligence. The bodies have been fished out from the water-filled basement of the coaching centre and have been sent for post-mortem. The police have also registered a case and initiated a probe.

2 Detained So Far

Meanwhile, two people have been detained in connection with the case.

Rau’s IAS study circle runs different courses for UPSC aspirants. It is learnt that the institute charges a whopping Rs 1,75,500/- for GS foundation course. The courses that they offer include GS foundation course, Optional course, CSAT course and Mains test series.

Recently, another UPSC aspirant Nilesh Rai lost his life on July 23 after getting electrocuted in the nearby Patel Nagar area. He was electrocuted after coming in contact with a live wire.

The official sources stated that the incident took place after heavy rainfall on Saturday evening led to a drain burst nearby, leaving the basement of the coaching centre filled with drain water. On information, the police teams from Central Delhi, the fire department officials, the district administration and the NDRF teams rushed to the spot and efforts were initiated to rescue the missing students.

According to the sources, information was received about the flooding of the basement of an institute, wherein three students were reportedly missing. Immediately, the officials of the concerned authorities rushed to the spot and efforts were initiated to trace the missing students. During the rescue operation, the bodies of the three missing students were retrieved one after the other during the hours-long search operation.

The Delhi Fire Service, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and Delhi Police were on-site conducting further search and rescue operations. Even after the recovery of the third body, the authorities were thoroughly searching the basement of the coaching centre.